Thursday, July 31, 2008

I mentioned before that Jane makes up words all the time, especially when she doesn't have one to express what she's thinking. Sometimes she just decides to use a different one though, for instance, she calls Laffy Taffys 'Sweet Peas' and no one can ever figure out what she's talking about when she offers them a Sweet Pea. I've decided that I want to remember these things, so I'm going to start a 'Word of the Day' post.

Today's word is...

duding (dood-ing)verb

1. to disturb, bother or anger (a person) in a way that displeases, troubles, or irritates; annoy.

How Jane used this word:

"Last night, Lizzy was totally duding me and she wouldn't stop and she just kept duding me and duding me because she wouldn't stop crying when I was trying to sleep."

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Jane and I had the following conversation this evening while she was drinking her Tang...

Jane: Mom, why do astronauts drink Tang?Me: (very amused) Who told you that?Jane: I don't know.Me: What are astronauts?Jane: They are people that wear big white suits and white helmets and they go into space and they have to wear a rope around them so they don't float away.Me: That's right, did you learn about them in school?Jane: No, we sing a song about them in church.Me: Church? How does it go?Jane: The astronauts walked and walked and walked and walked.Me: Are you sure you aren't referring to the pioneer children?Jane: Oh, ya, I guess so.

She continued to sing about the "astronauts singing as they walked and walked" for the rest of the evening. If you informed my child about astronauts and their love of Tang, will you let me know? I'm so amused and curious I can hardly stand myself. If I had to put money somewhere, I'd guess it was Uncle Johnny.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

What a weekend.Grandma Barron arrived on Thursday evening with gifts (she's such a grandma). Among them was this darling outfit for Lizzy that we all can't get enough of. She wore it until it was filthy this weekend. She was so upset when Grandma tried to leave that evening, she used all her baby force keep her with us.

It was Jane's birthday on Friday. Brent has started working 4 day weeks now, which means that he always has Fridays off... it came in handy this week. We told Jane that we would take her to the zoo for her birthday, so off to the zoo we went. I had my doubts about going with them because Baby Charlie is really limiting me physically these days, but I didn't want to miss out. Turns out, I probably should have trusted my instincts since I only made it about half the way through and then I had to plant on a nice bench in the shade with Lizzy while Brent and Jane took off the see the rest of the animals.

Jane loves her daddy and her daddy LOVES her.

I didn't make it to the giraffes this time.

She was so excited to go on the train. As soon as it stopped she said "Can we go again?" No, we didn't go again. Even on her birthday, one train ride is sufficient.

In the evening, we had family over for more celebrations.

I wasn't in the mood to make another cake, so I bought this one for Jane from the store. It was a hit. She got it all to herself and the rest of us ate pie, at least all two of us that wanted it. I have since consumed all the left over pie. Mmmmmm, pie.

Our gift to her was a new bike. Brent took her to the store and let her pick it out herself. She also got this cute helmet and streamers and everything. She adores her bike. She makes sure that it is always locked up in the garage when she isn't riding it because she's certain that everyone else wants her bike as much as she does and is determined that someone is going to take it. When she was in line to buy it, she said to her daddy "This is the happiest day of my life!"

Jane's friend got a music box at her party a while ago and Jane was completely taken in by it. She asked Cait's mom where she got it so that I could get one for her for her birthday too. Well our store was all out, so I had to call in the out of town support. My mom came through like a champ and brought the music box up for Jane. She loves this box more than I even thought she would. Thanks Mom! The dress is also from my mom. She wanted to wear it to bed and the next day and will only take it off when we make her.

Jane was a doll all day. She took a nap in the afternoon, keeping her in a good mood. She loved all her gifts and kept telling us how happy she was and how much she loved us. She really was truly grateful for everything. It was one of the most satisfying days I've ever had.

Saturday, Grandma watched the little kids while the big kids went to see Batman. It was pretty awesome, as expected. We did a lot of sitting around and in the evening, we got a really fun thunderstorm for a while. We quickly realized that the gutters on our new house aren't in the best shape.

Here's Jane in front of Stringham Falls.We'll have to do something about that. It's been a nice, long weekend, and the best part is that Brent will have nice long weekends from now on (or at least for the 3 month trial period).

Thursday, July 24, 2008

In some ways, Lizzy is a lot like her daddy. I mean, she looks just like him and in a lot of ways, she acts like him. The funniest thing is that she goes around closing the outside doors, just like Brent. He gets really mad when Jane and I leave the doors open when the a/c is on. In some ways, she's just like him, but not in every way. It seems as though the little girl that we thought was so easy going and peaceful has, in fact, been so unfortunate as to inherit her mommy's temper.

This morning she was just ornery and wouldn't stop whining, so I tried to give her some ibuprofin, thinking that maybe her teeth were hurting her or something. Well she wanted the medicine, but not from me. She wants to do everything herself and there was no way I was going to give her a syringe full of sticky meds. She got mad and here are the results in 2 parts...

She's a corner baby. She runs to the corners in the house to have melt downs all the time. This is one of her favorite corners. After she came out of the corner, she threw herself down on the rug and...

I can't emphasize enough that this isn't a unusual thing in our house. She does this several times a day, and she only 1! When she gets like this, she doesn't want to be touched or held. Even if she wants something, like a bottle, she'll just chuck it at you and then go pick it up later. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I generally do a great deal of both, it just depends on my mood that day. Hopefully you all will laugh. It really is funny to see such a small thing so angry at the world.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

As I mentioned last week, Brent and I decided to redo our bathroom. It's kinda strange how we ended up in there since I was resigned to having a less than ideal bathroom for a good long time. I quickly realized, though that I was going to be miserable without a decent bathroom. They don't seem to be all that important to some people, but I'm a bath person. I have to have a good bathtub or I just don't function right. I need that place to get away and just soak. Some people tell me that if they had a good tub, they'd bathe, but for me it's more like... I HAVE to have a good tub, and nice bathroom to go with it. Brent and I remodeled all three bathrooms in our old house and only hired plumbers to move the pipes around for us. Those remodels took months of our lives and this time, as Brent keeps putting it "I learned enough to know that next time, I'm hiring someone." As it turns out, we came into a little money (thank you economic stimulus check) right at the same time that our neighbor's friend had time to work on it, so there you have it.

Here's the before...

This blue was completely unacceptable. I couldn't even get my makeup on decently with that color in there. I really don't understand what woman would do that to herself. The bathtub was shallow (I'll admit that I might be a little "larger" than most people right now) and uncomfortable. And the drain didn't work, which was just annoying.

And here's our after...

It's hard to get a good perspective because the room is so small, and it's night and I still only have a crappy camera, but maybe you'll get the idea (Mom). We got our vanity for a song at Costco and the mirror too. The tile work is incredible. I love love love subway tiles and almost didn't put them in until my sweet friend came over (with all 3 of her kids first thing in the morning that I had to have tile there) to tell me that it would look great and just to do it. I'm SO happy that I did. Anyway, I'm giddy over my new bathroom and new bathtub. It might not be a nice big bathroom with a separate tub and shower, but I haven't actually ever lived anywhere that gave me access to one, so those are things that, fortunately for me, I don't really value. I feel so much more attached to this house, having made this room the way that I want it. It was good for me, mentally, to fix up this room.

Oh, and once again, if anyone needs any work done in their home and wants it done well... I know a guy.

I am wondering why I am sitting here at my computer less than an hour after all of Jane's friends have gone home from her birthday party. If I were a more sensible person, I would be cleaning up the chocolate cake crumbs off of the rug before they really make a mess. I, however, am not a very sensible person and I want to sit and veg, so here I am.

Jane turns 4 on Friday. "Four on July 25th" she's been telling people for the last several months. I decided to have her party today so that her friends (for the most part) would be in town. Honestly, I'm not much of a party thrower and I dread doing this every year, but Jane knows that her friends get parties and if she doesn't get one, I'd hate to see the disappointment. This is a particularly hard year since I'm not quite myself right now. I keep telling people that I'm totally in survival mode and I'm pretty much just taking the path of least resistance with everything. So... here's how you throw a party for a 4 year old girl, last minute, with the least amount of effort possible.

First of all, you start out with a princess theme. It's VERY easy to throw a princess party.

I wanted to make cupcakes, but I couldn't find my tins, so we made a regular one. I bought the pink frosting and Jane decorated it with the stuff we already had in the house.

They had this pinata at Target. I happened to have had a craving for sugar a couple weeks ago and bought like a 10 lb. bag of candy from Costco. As soon as I got home, I started wondering what I was going to do with all the candy. Well, we stuffed the princess pinata with it. It was a lucky pregnancy craving I guess.

I was pleased that I had had some foresight several months ago and bought these little crown crafty things from Joann's when I saw them there one day. They were super easy and the girls seemed to like them.

We were going to have ice cream, but I forgot to buy some. Oops. No one seemed to notice.

I made the girls clean up the paper from the gifts and their plates.

Oh yes, you must also try to get the baby down for a nap. Lizzy slept through the whole thing, making it a lot easier on me. Here's a picture of my beautiful baby before nap time.

Our goody bags were filled with candy from the pinata, some Lou Lou clippies and stickers that were purchased at the same time as the crafty crowns. Add an hour of my time and there you have it. Birthday party accomplished. It went well and I'm so glad that Jane has so many cute friends to come celebrate with her. Brent will be home on Friday to treat Jane to more celebrating on her real birthday.

Friday, July 18, 2008

No, they aren't dead (we checked), they are just really really really tired. Me too. Why am I still awake right now? And why do my kids sleep like that? And why can't I prevent their room from always being trashed? And why is it the first room in the house that I started to decorate and it still isn't finished? So many questions, so little time.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Brent and I are remodeling our master bathroom. I'm so excited. I normally wouldn't bother posting about it at this point since I know that I will preparing a nice, fat post about it as soon as it's finished, but I wanted to put a plug in for the person that is doing the work for us.

We ended up being able to hire the good friend of my good friend, Sheri. He did almost all the work on her home's remodel including an addition off the back, new deck and new bathrooms and new tile and on and on. The reason that we were able to have him come so soon is because he's decided to go out on his own and was able to focus all his attention on our project. Since he's just started to find his own projects instead of working for another contractor, Sheri is trying to make sure his calendar gets filled up for him. I wanted to put in a huge plug for him if there's anyone living in the Salt Lake area that needs handyman services of any kind. So far, he's had to redo plumbing and electrical in our bathroom, demo, tile work, sheetrock repair and has done it all himself. He is very respectful of me and my home, clean, efficient, particular, hardworking and capable of any large or small project. If you need services of any kind, let me or my friend, Sheri, know. Here are a few photos of the tile work that he's done for us so far...

The bathroom was completely gutted including the cast iron tub (you should have seen them getting that thing out of my house! I wish I'd gotten a video.) and surround and floor and vanity.

Having tiled a couple of showers myself, I can appreciate the craftsmanship here. It really is like an art to do this stuff well. The tile has not yet been grouted (so it's going to look even better) and no, we are not leaving the walls this color of blue. One room at a time, the crayon house will be toned down. The bathroom should be finished in a few days. More photos to come. I'm SO EXCITED!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Monday, July 14, 2008

When people meet Jane (and she'll start to talk to them after about 10 minutes of very suspicious looks) one of the first things they seem to notice is her vocabulary. I'm not sure why words are so important to her, but she LOVES words, especially the big ones. It's very important that she pronounces and uses them correctly and she'll ask you if she's using the words the right way ("properly" she says). She's taken her word obsession so far that she makes them up all the time too. Most of them come and go by the day, but there's one that has stuck around for probably the better part of a year at this point....

Saturday, July 12, 2008

but I think that I might have the most beautiful children ever created. We had some family photos taken by a good friend of Brent's sister. I love that there are so many moms that are so amazing at photography. What an incredible hobby and job! Lindsay Ross took these and I'm just blown away. I'm such a sucker for photos these days. Visit http://www.lindsayrossphotography.blogspot.com/ to see our previews!

Friday, July 11, 2008

I don't know if I'm doing this right because I've never done it before, but one of my friends does a lot of these Friday Flashbacks and I thought it would be fun.

Almost exactly 2 years ago, Brent and I took a much needed vacation to San Diego. We went to the zoo and Sea World with Jane. As soon as we got home, we found out that we were pregnant with Lizzy. It seems like a long time ago.

2 is about the cutest age there is. If a kid isn't cute when they're 2, they don't really stand a chance later on.

Then there were 3. Soon there will be 3 kids! And it's only been 2 years. Weird.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

1. What is something mom always says to you? Um, I love you.2. What makes mom happy? Clean up messes that Lizzy does.3. What makes mom sad? Make a mess

4. How does mom make you laugh? Tickle me.5. What was mom like as a child? Not go to school.6. How old is your mom? 40.7. How tall is your mom? 50.8. What is your mommy's favorite thing to do? Make barrettes.9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Make stuff.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Tickle them.11. What is your mom really good at? Summersaults. (?)12. What is your mom not very good at? Carrying Charlie in your tummy.13. What does your mom do for her job? Tickle and kiss.14. What is your mom's favorite food? Chocolate.

15. What makes you proud of your mom? Reading the scriptures.16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? (I couldn’t get her to give me a real answer.She just made up names)17. What do you and your mom do together? Kiss each other.

18. How are you and your mom the same? Water the plants.19. How are you and your mom different? We have different green shirts.20. How do you know your mom loves you? Kiss each other and hug each other.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

So, I had another appointment today. I'm now 28 weeks, which is NOT 7 months. Since I'm due on Sept. 28, I'm more like 6 months there. Everything was fine at the doctor's office, it just took a long time. He is super busy and had a delivery this morning, which caused me to wait a full hour until I got to see him. I'm measuring spot on, heart beat is good, I'm doing fine. I had my glucose test this morning and it was early enough that the only thing I consumed before 11:00 was an orange soda with enough sugar in it to make me completely ill. I'm SO unimpressed with the lab techs at this hospital. Every time I've been in there for blood work, they totally hurt me! The guy at my last doctor's office was much better.The baby's head is apparently what is resting right under my ribs and the doctor says he'll probably flip upside down by the next time I see him. Things are still going really well, but this pregnancy has definitely caught up with me. I'm having a lot harder time moving around and I'm feeling those 3rd trimester aches and pains. I have also been having a lot of braxton-hicks contractions, which is different for me. I didn't have any with Jane and very few with Lizzy. Sometimes they can be really strong and even painful, but I guess that there's nothing to worry about, so I won't bother worrying. I have one more 4-week appointment at 32 weeks and then I'm on to 2-weekers. I've got to get that nursery finished (ok, started) because this baby is going to get here before I know it.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Ok, so I actually have quite a few half finished rooms, this one is more like half of the room is almost finished. Brent and my mom and I spent most of the 4th painting the big bonus room over the garage. For those who have forgotten what it looked like before, allow me to remind you...

This yellow may not have been an issue for some people, but I couldn't tolerate it. It was worse in person than even in the photo. Some of the words we used to describe it were bright, annoying, jarring, burdensome, abrasive, or pretty much anything else negative. Not that I have anything against yellow. I love yellow, just not THAT yellow. It took all day to prime and paint over it. After spending all week organizing all my crafting goods, we now have...

Ah. That's better.

I'm not quite finished with it. I need to get some decor for the walls, but it's a good start. I'm so pleased with how organized everything is, I'm just giddy over it all. We took the cabinetry out of the basement of the old house and my mom spent all last Saturday helping us figure out how to use the pieces that we already had so that we didn't waste some stuff and have to buy new stuff. It isn't the perfect set up, but I'm feeling pretty good about it and we only had to spend $20 to make all the existing stuff work.

My desk. I've got all my ribbon in the boxes, it's hard to see, but I made some ribbon boxes to hide all the spools that clutter everything up. I've also got all those awesome little jars that hold all my barrettes and buttons and rhinestones and everything and more ribbon in the blue and white box. I made about 17 trips to IKEA just for organizing stuff, but they came through like the organizing champs that they've proven to be. Finally, EVERYTHING has a home. No more cluttered drawers and shelves.

This wall still needs a little TLC, but it is the home for all my sewing stuff and current Lou Lou inventory. We have some other cabinets that we need to stack or hang or something, I'm still deciding how I want to do it.

As you can see, I still have the other half of the room to work on. Someday, it will include TV and toy storage and a slip cover for the white couch in the roll of blue material against the wall there. Someday, but not necessarily some day soon.

In the meantime, how am I feeling about my new fabulously fabulous craftorium?